


The Tyrant and The Desert Wind

by InconsistentUpdates



Category: Paladins: Champions Of The Realm (Video Game)
Genre: Hi-Rez please give us more lore my crops are dying, M/M, One Shot, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, technically a Sha Lin origin story too??, wow I still suck at titles and summaries what a surprise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 03:42:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12182220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InconsistentUpdates/pseuds/InconsistentUpdates
Summary: When you turn eighteen, you receive a tattoo of the name of the person you were destined to spend your life with. Your 'soulmate' as people called them.Sha Lin doesn't realize who his soulmate truly is until he accidentally puts a bullet in his chest.





	The Tyrant and The Desert Wind

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written Sha Lin or Zhin before so hopefully I did this right?? 
> 
> Either way, enjoy :)

The day Sha Lin would receive his name is one that was meant to be celebrated all throughout the kingdom. His father and mother sat with him in his darkened bedroom, watching as the sand from the hourglass on his bed stand trickles into the lower chamber.

Sha Lin wouldn’t have been so nervous about the affair if his parents hadn’t put so much weight on his shoulders about it. From the very moment he was old enough to understand what a soulmate was he had been badgered by his tutors and parents relentlessly about it. He needed to find his soulmate as soon as possible, he needed to find them and marry them the moment it was appropriate to do so. His father and mother were looking forward to Sha Lin and his future beloved inheriting the desert kingdom, though Sha Lin could never tell if it was because of their eagerness to retire or if it truly was to see him happy.

The concept of his soulmate was one that everyone seemed keen on warping. His parents said it was political, but the castle staff always said it was for love. His parents want him to marry and produce heirs, but his heart tells him to see where his love would take him, to give it time to grow and prosper.

Midnight comes and goes, and Sha Lin vaguely registers that the pain in his chest isn’t because of his heart beating harshly in his chest. He gently lifts his shirt up, and over his heart is a name that shimmers as if tattooed with fire itself.

_Zhin_

His parents mumble to each other as if he weren’t there, speaking hastily. _That’s not a woman’s name. How will he produce heirs? What will become of the kingdom?_

But Sha Lin doesn’t care what they have to say. He’s too happy to listen to them, grinning down at the name and already thinking of a dozen separate ways to introduce himself, and a dozen more ways to win them over. He can’t help but think of what this ‘Zhin’ looks like, if they like the same foods, like the same color, if Zhin knows how to dance, and if he doesn’t would he be willing to dance anyways.

At the age of nineteen, while he still dreams of meeting Zhin, his parents announce to the kingdom that he has no name, and that they would be accepting arranged marriage proposals from the monarchs of their neighboring kingdoms.

Sha Lin is twenty-three when he rejects what must’ve been the twentieth woman arranged for him and finally decides he’s had enough.

He had been trapped in the castle for months now, a feeble attempt by his parents to stop him from meeting his true soulmate. Those months were spent in misery, hoping he would be able to convince his parents to reconsider, to no avail. That night he grabs a rucksack, a change of clothing, and his prized bow. He leaves without a note, or even a goodbye. He knows that the moment his parents notice they’ll know why he had gone. 

Sha Lin travels, mostly alone, but occasionally with others. He travels beyond the dessert, and loves every moment of it. He runs through forests, he dances in pubs, he flirts with pretty men and women because there is no one to tell him not to do so. He makes an effort to chat up as many men as he could, mostly to see if he would get lucky and find ‘Zhin’. The land he finds himself drawn to is known as Crosswind Hold, and while he was a wanderer, he always found himself back here, finding a new adventure over every horizon.

One such adventure leads him to a woman, a bounty hunter named Kinessa. Sha Lin needed money, and bounty hunting seemed to be the easiest way of doing so here. The bounty was a simple two-man job, and wasn’t put on someone innocent like he had originally feared. It was pure luck that both he and Kinessa asked about it at the same time, and ended up getting paired off with each other for the job. 

Kinessa wasn’t much of a talker regarding herself, but she most certainly had plenty to say about her line of work. Sha Lin found himself fascinated as she happily told him stories of her hardest bounties. Eventually she managed to coax a bit out of him about where he was from, though he absolutely refused to speak about his time as a prince. After a few days of tracking, they eventually found signs of their mark. A man that that the bounty had only described as ‘The Tyrant’. 

The remains of the smoldering village made Sha Lin’s heart ache, but he keeps his head up and remains vigilant. Kinessa nudges his arm and gestured to a figure standing over the remains of a burning home, clutching a blade that seemed to be the source of the fires engulfing what remained of the village. Kinessa uses her teleporter to get up on a high ledge, while he was supposed to cover her from the ground. And yet, the archer found himself frozen amongst the fire and ash. Sha Lin’s chest burned, and he found himself rooted to his spot as he stared at the silhouette of the man. 

A gunshot rang through the village, and for a moment Sha Lin is sure the man would crumple to the floor with a bullet in his head. Instead, he turns with an inhuman speed, raises the blade, and a sharp _cling!_ rings in his ears.

He barely registers the sharp, sudden pain in his chest as he falls to the floor. In the second he had before he fell unconscious, he finally realizes that The Tyrant had deflected Kinessa’s bullet right into his chest.

He wakes up days later with a healer and Kinessa in the next village over. Kinessa wastes no time filling him in on what he missed. They failed the bounty of course, seeing as The Tyrant still lived, though they did get a bit of compensation because of his injury. After he was hit, Kinessa got him out, but for some reason, The Tyrant didn’t follow. As she finished speaking, he could tell there was still something on her mind, but she seemed hesitant to share.

It took a few minutes of nagging, but eventually Kinessa relents. She takes a deep breath before speaking. “Did you know you have his name?”

“Whose?”

“The Tyrant…you have his name on your chest. Zhin the Tyrant is your soulmate.”

Sha Lin’s breath hitches audibly as the realization settles. The Tyrant, the man who’d been carving a bloody path through Crosswind Hold for the past few months…his _soulmate_.

“I…no, I-I didn’t.”

Kinessa gives him an apologetic glance, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly in an obvious attempt to be comforting. “Sorry, Sha.”

“No…don’t be.”

They travel together for another month more before Kinessa leaves his company when a bounty from a different hold is sent to her. Kinessa only asks once if Sha Lin would come with her, and despite his mind wanting to tell her yes, his heart tells her no. Kinessa parts from him with a handshake that he can’t resist turning into a very one-sided hug. The last view he gets of her is her turning to flip him off before mounting her horse and galloping away.

Sha Lin misses her company, but after a few weeks he’s back to his comfortable lone wanderer status. He continues his travels between towns and villages, intending to see new places and things, but he finds himself returning to familiar places, drinking at a pub more than just once and staying in a town more than just one night.

The appeal of wandering is diminishing in him, and he doesn’t want to admit that he knows why.

He follows local news of The Tyrant, listening to people talk about where he goes and what he destroys in his path. It goes on for another month before news of The Tyrant seems to diminish overnight. Sha Lin needs to physically ask the local bartender for news of him seeing as no one seemed to find him interesting enough to gossip about daily.

“Didn’t you hear,” Sha Lin strains himself to hear the barkeep’s hushed tone, “The Thousand Hands Guild overthrew him. He hasn’t been heard from in weeks.”

Somehow, despite seeing what his soulmate could do first hand, he fears for what may have happened to him. He tries to convince himself that The Tyrant going missing was for the better, but at the same time he can’t help but wonder where he might’ve gone. He pays for his drink and leaves, gathering his rucksack and bow before leaving that night.

Sha Lin wanders, but he wanders with a purpose now. He lets his fingers glide across the tattoo on his chest, and then over the scar that almost looked as if it was underlining Zhin’s name. He sighs and hopes that somehow the tattoo would guide him to where he needed to go.

He follows his heart, and it leads him to a battlefield in the ruins of a temple hidden from the world. Probably the strangest battlefield he’s ever seen, at that. No one wore corresponding uniforms, and no one seemed to be of the same race either, save for the couple of elves and fellow humans he can spot.

He sees a walking tree, for god’s sake, and decides he needs to investigate for himself.

The group is known as The Paladins, and they welcome Sha Lin with open arms. Apparently they were all on the same side, and only fight one another to practice tactics and strategies. Sha Lin finds a home with The Paladins that he doesn’t realize he’s missed since leaving his kingdom. He even reunites with Kinessa once again, who had apparently come to join the group after the bounty she had left Sha Lin for. 

Although his mind tells him leave to keep searching, his heart tells him to stay... and he always did tend to act with his heart rather than his mind.

A year into his occupancy with The Paladins and Sha Lin still doesn’t regret staying. He forms lasting friendships, and finally finds a real family he never thought he would find again after abandoning his parents. And yet, he knew there was something missing. Or rather, someone. 

That missing piece ended up being closer than he could’ve anticipated. 

They get word of another new champion joining their ranks, and of course he, being himself, decides to be a part of the greeting party along with Ying and Inara. They wait at sundown, and with Inara’s superior height over them, she spots the person walking over the horizon. Sha Lin stretches his neck out in an attempt to see them, and finds a silhouette that was all too familiar in his mind.

Suddenly he’s standing in the middle of that burning village, staring at the silhouette of The Tyrant as he sends a bullet into his chest. Suddenly, Sha Lin can’t seem to breathe correctly as his tattoo burns like a raging wildfire.

The Tyrant appears over the horizon, and walks over to them with surprising calmness. Ying and Inara greet him and shake his hand, but Sha Lin can only stand rooted in his spot as his hand instinctively moves to his chest, lightly brushing both the name and the scar.

“Hello? Did you hear me?”

The roaring in his ears recedes in a split second as the voice directed towards him breaks him from his flashback. The Tyrant is standing in front of him, confusion clear on his features. Sha Lin opens and closes his mouth like a fish out of water. He can only form a single word eventually.

“Zhin?”

Zhin nods stifly, outstretching his hand. “Yes. And you?”

“... Sha Lin.”

Zhin’s outstretched hand visibly falters and his eyes widen. Sha Lin finally moves his hand away from his chest to put Zhin’s name on full display. Ying and Inara both gasp silently, and hurry inside to give them both a bit of privacy. Zhin’s hand goes to his own chest, the opposite side that Sha Lin had his.

Zhin’s hand reaches out towards him, and hesitates over the tattoo of his name. Gently he runs his fingers similarly to how he always did, and Sha Lin can’t find it in him to brush his hand away.

“Who did this?”

Zhin’s fingers are delicate over his scar, and suddenly he feels fearful of how he would react to the answer. However, he refuses to lie. Sha Lin had a moral code, It wasn’t right to keep secrets from anyone, no matter who they were.

“It…was you.”

Zhin snatches his hand back like Sha Lin had hurt him. He can’t help but admit that he missed the gentle touch.

“Me? What…” Zhin’s confusion is replaced by realization, and that realization morphs into guilt. He shakes his head sadly and takes a step away from him.

“I…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry...” Zhin turns away, but Sha Lin finds himself surging forward to grab him before he could walk away. 

“No, don’t leave!”

“I must. You know what I was, what I did. I hurt you…I need to leave.” Zhin tries to pull away from him, but his grip is firm, laced with adrenaline and fear of losing his soulmate.

“Why did you come here?”

His question makes Zhin stop, but he doesn’t let go of his robes. He turns to look at Sha Lin, and he can feel the vulnerability in those hardened eyes.

“I came for a new beginning… a fresh start.”

“It’s been more than a year since you disappeared. Did you come here to change? To be better?”

Zhin takes a moment to consider his words. “People like me don’t change…but be better? I never considered it a possibility.”

Sha Lin still hasn’t let go of him, but he finds that he had finally stopped fighting against his grip.

“Well, I would be willing to help you, if you’ll have me.”

Zhin stares at him in shock. “You would still have me, even knowing who I am? Knowing what I've done?”

Sha Lin can’t help but grin, moving his shirt aside again so Zhin could see his name. “We’re soulmates, Zhin. Your kind of stuck with me now, whether you like it or not.”

Zhin gives him an unsteady smile, and Sha Lin decides then and there that he’d like to see that smile more often.

“I suppose…I could stay then. If you’re willing to stand by me.”

This time, Sha Lin’s mind and heart are in the same place. He takes Zhin’s hands in his own and smiles.

“I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> I may continue this with different pairings?? But probably not until I finish writing 'Cold' at least.


End file.
